SQUIRREL
Made by the egg with the help of the ‘Squirrels’ Pre-Schoolers and their teachers from The Paragon School
7 - 29 December 2019
There was an advent calendar where each window offered a fact about the natural world. One such window said: In winter, squirrels can never remember where they buried their nuts. ‘That,’ we thought, ‘is an early years Christmas show!’ Bringing the team together, we set these aims for the project: we wanted a puppet that was real-looking in a world that is not; we wanted to offer abstract images to exercise the imagination; we wanted to keep it narrativelight (we love to hear young audiences give their running commentaries throughout the play); and we couldn’t resist a marble run! The youngest children should have the freedom to roam and adults should be given permission to let them. In fact, we wanted the roaming to benefit the action not hinder it. We built the narrative around that aim. This see-saw between freedom and narrative was informed by regular trips to The Paragon School, and them to us. We had try-outs in October and useful conversations and observations with the children, their teachers and their parents. We had some disasters too! For the sound, we drew on the rhythms and dynamics of Jazz to portray the physicality
‘Going to the theatre [is] always an event beyond simply performance… it begins the moment the children set off on their journey to the theatre, and lasts as long as the performance remains in their imagination’ Dr Emma Miles
‘We take children to the theatre not because it’s good for them, but because they have a right to enjoy art just as much as us adults. We take them because we need their imagination and openness and honesty to complete the experience. We take them because theatre, perhaps more than any other art-form, is about being together and imagining together’ Dr Ben Fletcher
and personality of our squirrel, who roams in a sound world straddling the natural, the urban and the magical. For the visual, we wanted to level the playing field of comprehension between old and young audiences, allowing space for imagination and interpretation while still giving a jazz-tinged, energetic flavour to the world Squirrel inhabits. For this we drew on aesthetics of Bauhaus graphic design, beatnik fashion and the Festival of Britain to create an urban, geometric space with room for audience interpretation and interaction. At the end of our play, we want our intergenerational audience to feel communal and joyful. This is our way of creating a seasonal production that captures the conviviality of Christmas without being about it. Happy celebrations everyone! Kate Cross and Tim Bell PS For our warm ups, we play KEEPY UPPY – standing in a circle the team must keep the ball off the floor by hitting it with a body part but the ball cannot be hit twice in a row by the same body part. Our current team record is 102. This helps us to feel playful at the beginning of every day.
THE TEAM Lindsay Baker – Mainly producing Tim Bell – Mainly directing Rob Browning – Mainly stage management Kate Cross – Mainly writing Jim Elvey – Mainly production management playing with marble runs Lloyd Evans – Mainly technical wizardry Anisha Fields – Mainly design Caroline Garland / Oliver Langdon – Mainly performing Lisa Hall – Mainly production management and playing with lego to see whether we could make our own motorised marble release mechanisms Kay Hudson – Mainly stage management Dinah Mullen – Mainly sound design Marc Parrett – Mainly puppetry and driving backwards and forwards between Leeds and Bath Dave Treanor – Mainly lighting design
THANKS With thanks to John Biddle, Peta Maurice, Philippa Hogg, Hannah Treadaway, Emma Woosnam and some other fellow rodents we met along the way
Gracie likes to play along the roof tops in her urban playground. I like where I live. There’s lots to climb. I often climb to the top of the noodle house on Fast Zoomy Car Street and leap across to the gutters above the hospital.
I’m a rodent and I’m proud. Full bush tail - some raggedy patches. Charcoal eyes. Above average build. Good teeth.
Gracie is a bit fussy. I’m looking for the perfect acorn. To bury. For winter. I’ll know it when I see it. Perhaps you will too.
Gracie finds her perfect acorn and buries it. Oh my. Geronimo. I think I’ve found it.
Gracie is sleepy and has a nap. I was up late studying my star constellations. Don’t tell my father, he’s strict about my 14.9 hours of beauty sleep per day.
When Gracie wakes up, everything has changed and she cannot find her nut. I’m clever. I’m strong. I’m focussed. I have good teeth. But I think I’ve said that before. Where’s my nut?
Gracie’s nut has disappeared but never mind. There are always more nuts… Unless the gulls are there.
CREATIVE TEAM Tim Bell Tim is Creative Producer at the egg, where he’s been working since 2016. Since then, he’s produced the Incubator (the egg’s idea development programme), appeared in Taking Flight, directed giant board-game-play Afraid to Ask, and was once seen dressed as a butler serving cakes to visiting industry delegates. He is a recent graduate of the Clore Leadership Programme for leaders and aspiring leaders in the arts, culture and creative sectors. Tim has directed for other companies too, most notably Shanty Theatre Company, the Marine Theatre Lyme Regis, Eastern Angles, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Wassail. Before directing, Tim trained as an actor at Webber Douglas. Kate Cross Kate Cross is Director of the egg at Theatre Royal Bath. Starting in 1998 as Head of Education she worked alongside Theatre Royal staff and Board to create and build the egg, which opened in 2005. Prior to Bath she worked for Salisbury Playhouse, Colway Theatre Trust and Beaford Arts, amongst others. She is the current Chair of ASSITEJ UK, the national centre for the international network of Theatre for Young Audiences, ASSITEJ and was recently awarded an MBE for services to children’s theatre in Bath. She has seen thousands of plays for young audiences from across the world. Normally a Creative Producer, she is putting herself at the heart of the creative process for the first time on this production of Squirrel. Anisha Fields Recent and upcoming design credits include: First Encounters: The Merchant of Venice (RSC, dir. Robin Belfield), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Salisbury Playhouse / Tobacco Factory Theatres), I Wish I Was A Mountain (Travelling Light / the egg) and Beautiful Thing (Tobacco Factory Theatres). She was the 2018-19 recipient of the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, recently completing 12 months as resident Assistant Designer at The Royal
Shakespeare Company. Design credits for film and TV include: Live from Television Centre (BBC Four/BAC), Blackbird (Transgressive North/Deerstalker Films – nominated Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature) and music videos for Maccabees (Marks to Prove It/Spit it Out). She is a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2017). Recent credits as associate/assistant designer include Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (UK tour), Wired to the Moon (Ballet Cymru) and The Hackstack (Hampstead Theatre). Caroline Garland Caroline is a performer, devisor and director who trained at Bretton Hall College of Arts. Caroline is Co-Director and performer of site specific, immersive theatre arts company Kilter Theatre. Kilter has been making award winning theatre and installations since 2006 with performances taking place on cycle paths, railway stations, in residential flats, changing cubicles, science labs, woodlands, allotments, disused warehouses and a postal lorry! Kilter is proud to be an Associate Company of the egg and is running a programme of outdoor theatre arts events for Bathscape until 2023. Kilter also co-hosts a bi-monthly story event Story Friday. www.kiltertheatre.org Over the years Caroline has toured nationally and internationally with a wide range of shows and theatre companies including Angel Exit, Tall Stories, Kenny Wax, Pins & Needles, Bold & Saucy, Coup De Theatre, Oxford Shakespeare Company, BAC, National Theatre Studio, Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre 503, Leicester Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre, Tobacco Factory, Bristol Old Vic, Salisbury Playhouse, Marine Theatre, Beaford Arts and festivals Ventnor, Take Off, Shambala, Larmer Tree, Towersey, Berlin, Barcelona, Monte Carlo....! Caroline is delighted to be back at the egg again this Christmas! Oliver Langdon OIly trained at Birmingham University & and Jacques Lecoq’s physical theatre school in Paris. He has worked internationally as a performer, moving to Bath in 2006 to co-
found Kilter Theatre with Caroline. For Kilter, Olly produces, writes, directs, devises and performs as well as facilitating workshops in collaboration with organisations and communities across the South West. Most recently he has written and performed in Qupid, a love story devised with Quantum researchers at University of Bristol. In 2020 he is leading a programme of song-writing workshops in schools to help young people articulate their ideas and plans for the Climate Emergency. Throughout the year Olly comperes new-writing event, Story Friday, and runs his one man promenade performance The Incredible Quizzicle Bath Pub Tour. He is delighted to be at the egg this Christmas larking about with a Squirrel! Previous performance credits include: Site-specific, immersive devising with Coup de Theatre and Bold & Saucy, adaptations of children’s classics with Angel Exit, Love’s Labours Lost and Cyrano de Bergerac with Oxford Shakespeare Company, mask and puppetry with Strangeface, contemporary dance with Precarious and agonising over dog-food choices in Sky TV comedy Trollied! Dinah Mullen BA (Hons) Sound and Image Design (1st) at Rose Bruford, 2002 - 2005. Nominated for Best Sound Design - Off West End Awards 2018. Resident Sound Designer and Collaborator with PanicLab (Dance Theatre Company) 2008-2016. A creator of sound and music for performance; specialising in collaborative projects, dance and performance art. Summarised Credits: Keith?, The Daughter In Law, Insignificance, Richard III, The Plague, The Blue Hour of Natalie Barney (Arcola); The Dog Beneath the Skin, Billy Bishop Goes to War (Jermyn Street Theatre, Southwark Playhouse); Roller (Barbican Pit); Stella (Brighton Theatre Royal, Hoxton Hall, Brakke Grond - Holland Festival); Asphalt Kiss, Theseus Beefcake (New Diorama); Sundowning (Tristan Bates, Plymouth Theatre Royal); The Droves (Coney @ CoLab Factory); Square
Rounds (The Finborough); Swan Lake II, Dark Waters (Chelsea Theatre). Current/Recent Projects: Homing Birds (Dir. Helena Belll, Kali Theatre, Plymouth, Theatre Royal, Salisbury Playhouse, Hornchurch, Queens Theatre, Leicester Curve, Tara Arts, Oct - Dec 2019; Echoes of the Port (Audio History piece with Stephanie Kempson, For University of Bristol Oct 2019); Squirrel (the egg, Dec 2019); Bobby and Amy (with Emily Jenkins for Vault Festival and Pleasance, Edinburgh); This Island’s Mine (Kings Head Theatre - May 2019); Forge (R&D throughout 2019 with Rachel Mars), Holocaust Brunch (BAC, JW3, Arts Depot, throughout 2019), The Faun Project and Desperate Gestures (With Choreographer Joseph Mercier throughout 2019); community projects for the egg and Kiln (Jan - Dec 2019); The Soothing Presence of Strangers (Audio piece with Rhiannon Armstrong, For London Borough of Culture 2019). Marc Parrett Marc is a Leeds based theatre maker and puppetry specialist. He is currently directing Bluey’s Big Play in Brisbane Australia. Previous work includes Snow Mouse for The Egg (puppet-maker and puppetry director), Sally Cookson’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse (puppet-maker) and Sally Cookson’s We’re Going on a Bearhunt (performer, puppet-maker, puppetry director, associate director) David Treanor As Head of Lighting: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child [World Premier, West End]; The Commitments [Original West End Production]; Singin’ in the Rain [West End]; The Railway Children [Waterloo Theatre], Peter Pan [The O2] and Eddie Izzard - Force Majeure Reloaded [West End]
A forward-thinking, co-educational independent school for 3-11 year olds based in beautiful Bath. We believe happy children learn best... and have the results to prove it
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